Win Mortimer

(1 May 1919 - 11 January 1998, USA)

Ripley's Believe it or Not

James Winslow Mortimer, or simply Win Mortimer, was born in Hamilton in Canada. He got his early graphics training from his father, who worked at the poster department of a lithography firm. After high school, Mortimer studied at the Art Students League of New York, where he took courses in anatomy. He joined the Canadian Army when World War II broke out, but returned to civil life in 1943. He started designing posters, until he got a job at DC Comics in 1945. There, he started out doing some 'Batman' and 'Superman' comics.

Grimm's Ghost Stories

At the same time, he became one of DC's most prolific cover artists. In the early 1950s he was National Comics's main artist of 'Superman' and 'Batman' covers. At the same time, he took over the 'Superman' daily series from Wayne Boring. Mortimer left DC in 1956, taking on a job to draw the daily Christian message strip 'David Crane' for Prentice-Hall Syndicate. He worked on this strip until 1960, when he took on the 'Larry Bannon' strip for Toronto Star Syndicate.

David Crane (3/4/1960)

While also doing work outside the comics field, Mortimer returned to DC in the late 1960s, as well as doing work for Marvel and Gold Key. Between 1979 and 1981 he drew Gold Key's Americanized comic book adaptations of Tatsuo Yoshida's popular anime TV series 'Battle of the Planets' (1979-1981). The scripts of these adaptations were written by Gary Poole and Charlie Seeger. Until the early 1980s, he was a versatile artist in many genres: from funny strips ('Scooter', 'Binky', 'Fat Albert'), to superhero comics ('Supergirl', 'Lois Lane', 'Spider-Man') and horror ('Tales of Mystery', 'The Twilight Zone', 'Frankenstein', 'Ripley's Believe it or Not'). In 1983, Win Mortimer started doing advertising and commercial art and artwork for Neal Adams's Continuity Associates.